Finished Business

by David Wishart

  ‘What?’ He was staring at me.

  ‘Come on, pal! You set me up. You sent me a message saying you wanted to talk to me this morning and then you had your tame thugs lie in wait to take me out.’

  Surdinus turned back to Leonidas, who was looking on open-mouthed.

  ‘You can go, Leonidas,’ he snapped. ‘We’ll deal with the rest later.’ The little Sicilian got up, gathered together the pile of wax tablets on the desk in front of him and moved to the door; never taking his eyes off me, and edging past like I was some sort of dangerous wild animal. The door closed behind him. ‘Corvinus, I sent you no message.’

  ‘Is that so, now?’

  ‘Certainly it is. What would I want to talk to you about? I gave you all the information that I had last time we met.’

  ‘Yeah, well, that side of things wouldn’t matter, would it? Because I shouldn’t’ve got this far. And when the question of the message was raised you could tell whoever asked it just that; that it hadn’t come from you.’

  He was almost purple with anger. ‘For the last time, and I give you my solemn word on this, I did not send you any message! Now what’s this about an attack?’

  I frowned. Well, it could be an act, of course, but if it was it was a bloody good one. And I didn’t think Surdinus Junior – unlike his brother – had either the nous or the panache to brazen something like this out successfully. Still, if it wasn’t him, then who was it?

  ‘There were three of them,’ I said. ‘Professionals. They’d’ve had me, too, if I hadn’t had a bit of unexpected help.’

  ‘We do get the occasional footpad out here.’ He was calming down now, losing his colour. ‘But not often during the day. This is disgraceful; the Watch are lax, very lax. When I’m appointed as a city judge I shall certainly make it my business to look into the problem.’

  ‘They weren’t robbers,’ I said. ‘They weren’t interested in my purse. All they wanted was to kill me. And they knew my name.’

  That got me another stare. ‘I beg your pardon?’

  ‘I told you. I was set up. Presumably by whoever sent the message. I don’t suppose you have any idea who that might have been?’

  ‘No, of course not. None whatsoever.’

  ‘Uh-huh. Ah … one last question, pal, before I go and let you get on with things. Four names. Cassius Longinus. Julius Graecinus. Valerius Asiaticus. Anicius Cerialis. Any bells?’

  ‘Of course. They’re all senators. Longinus is – was, I suppose, now the emperor has recalled him to Rome – the Asian governor. Graecinus is currently a praetor. Asiaticus is from Narbonese Gaul; he’s a consular, suffect consul five years back. Cerialis – well, nothing special. A bit of an also-ran, really.’

  ‘They all friends of your father’s?’

  ‘Longinus and Graecinus, certainly. Intimate friends, you could say. The other two, no, not at all. He’d know them, naturally, as I do, but you couldn’t call them friends by any stretch of the imagination.’

  ‘Enemies, then?’

  ‘Good gods, no! That’s not what I meant at all! Simply that he had no particular dealings with them, of any nature.’ He was frowning. ‘Corvinus, what is this about?’

  I shrugged. ‘Probably nothing. But I thought I’d ask. I’m sorry for the interruption. I’ll see you around.’ I half-turned to go, then paused. ‘How’re your brother and his girlfriend doing, by the way?’

  He stiffened. ‘Well, I assume. But now our business is done we have no further contact. Or are likely to have in future.’

  ‘Fine, fine.’ I grinned. Cheeky, sure, and completely unwarranted, but I hadn’t been able to resist it. ‘Thank you, Naevius Surdinus. Don’t disturb yourself, I’ll find my own way out.’

  ‘The slave will be waiting out of earshot.’

  ‘Great,’ I said, and left.

  Back to the centre, with a brief stop-off at the Fourteenth District Watch house. To the Palatine this time, for another word with Gaius Secundus, if he wasn’t too busy, regarding the sena-torial quartet. If the set-up hadn’t been Surdinus Junior’s doing – and I’d be very surprised, now, if it had been – then one or all of these guys was in the frame: it couldn’t be coincidence that I’d been attacked practically right after I’d mentioned to them that I was investigating Surdinus’s death and knew, in essence, who to look for as the actual perp. Someone, somewhere, didn’t want things to go any further.

  Why any of them would want to kill a quiet-living man like Naevius Surdinus, mind, I couldn’t think.

  Still, you can’t make tiles without clay. We’d have to start by finding out as much as we could about the buggers, and see if anything gelled. With luck, Secundus would be able to help there, and I was sure he’d be amenable enough. Besides, I owed him a half-jug of Massic.

  There was still the matter of the phantom slinger (by the gods, there was!) but he, like the birthmarked freedman, was currently a piece of the puzzle with no context. No doubt that’d come in time; I could only work with what I’d got.

  I set off back to the Sublician Bridge and the Palatine.

  SEVENTEEN

  Secundus, it turned out, was free, and like he’d said, being the boss had certain perks, so we adjourned to a corner table in Tasso’s. I ordered up the Massic and a plate of nibbles, and hit him with the four names. He asked me the same question Surdinus Junior had asked.

  ‘What’s this all about, Marcus?’

  I shrugged and gave him the same answer. ‘Probably nothing. Even so, I need some background here, pal. Anything you can do to help?’

  ‘Well.’ He settled down with his cup of wine. ‘Longinus you already know about, I’ve nothing to add there. Appointed Asian governor just under a year ago, been back here for less than half a month.’

  ‘And you’ve no idea why he was recalled.’

  ‘No. I told you. The emperor gave the order personally, and if he didn’t care to offer a reason, that was his privilege. There was nothing obvious, though, at least as far as I know; like I said, Longinus seemed to be doing a good job, and he’d kept his nose clean. He’s well-connected, too; his brother Lucius was married to Julia Drusilla.’ Gaius’s favourite sister – dead, now, these two years. ‘He’s a pretty straight-down-the-line guy, Longinus. But of course, if you’ve met him, you’ll know that.’

  ‘Yeah.’ He’d given that impression, anyway, and it chimed with Perilla’s opinion of him. Still, I’d’ve liked to know why he’d had his governorship revoked. I had my suspicions, sure, but that was all they could be without hard confirmation from an external source. ‘What about the others? Graecinus, for example?’

  ‘I don’t know much more about him than you probably do.’ Secundus took an olive from the dish. ‘He’s from Narbonensine Gaul originally; Fréjus, to be exact. This is his first year in the senate, as one of the foreign judges. Again, from what I hear he’s pretty straight. A bit too straight for his own good, perhaps.’

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘You remember Junius Silanus?’

  ‘Sure I do.’ Gaius’s erstwhile father-in-law and advisor, who’d been charged with treason three years before and forced into suicide.

  ‘Word is’ – and here Secundus glanced around and lowered his voice; I remembered the last time we’d talked – ‘Caesar wanted Graecinus to handle the prosecution, and he wouldn’t do it. Silanus was a personal friend, he said, and it went against his principles. Not many people have the guts, or maybe you’d call it the stupidity, to say no to the emperor, but that’s just what the guy did. Didn’t make any difference in the end to Silanus, of course, but Graecinus had blotted his copybook good and proper. A lot of people were surprised he was even allowed to run for praetor after that, but evidently the emperor’s decided to forgive and forget after all.’

  Uh-huh. I was beginning to get a glimmer of something here, not that where Surdinus’s murder was concerned it made any kind of sense. And it definitely wasn’t the sort of glimmer I wanted to see being encouraged.

&n
bsp; ‘Asiaticus,’ I said.

  ‘Another Narbonese Gaul, from Vienne. Family’s big among the Allobroges, which is the local tribe. Quite a trailblazer in his day; he was the first Narbonesian to make it as far as the consulship. That was five years ago; suffect, sure, but even so. Since then, a bit like Surdinus, he’s tended to stay out of things, which is fair enough, because he’s already rich as hell – he owns the villa and gardens that once belonged to old Lucullus – and very well-connected socially. Or at least he was; his wife’s Lollia Saturnina, Paulina’s sister.’ Gaius’s third wife, married four years before but divorced six months later. ‘He’s still well in with the emperor, though. Or again, so I believe. I’ve heard nothing to the contrary, anyway. And he’s also pretty thick with the Claudians, for what that’s worth. He’s been a close friend of Caesar’s Uncle Claudius for years.’

  Shit; we were certainly moving in high society here. Which fitted, unfortunately. I was beginning to get a very bad feeling about this. ‘OK,’ I said. ‘Last one. Anicius Cerialis.’

  ‘Can’t tell you much there, I’m afraid. I know the name, and I might even be able to fit a face to it at a pinch, but that’s about all. Oh, he’s a senator all right, but he’s pretty much a backbencher. Certainly nothing special.’ The same phrase as Junior had used. Obviously not someone who got himself noticed, was Anicius Cerialis. ‘I’m sorry, Marcus, but if you want to know anything beyond the surface stuff, you’ll have to ask someone more qualified.’

  I’d been beginning to think that myself. As a likely if probably reluctant informant, my muckraking acquaintance Caelius Crispus came to mind.

  ‘That’s OK, Gaius,’ I said. ‘Don’t worry about it. You’ve helped me a lot. Thanks.’

  Secundus grunted, picked up his cup and, instead of drinking, turned it round and round in both hands and set it down again.

  ‘Marcus,’ he said finally. ‘Level with me, right? Is this thing getting political?’

  Bugger; he might be slow, but like I said, Gaius Secundus was by no means thick. I crossed my fingers, hoped like hell I wasn’t lying, and said: ‘’Course not. Why should it be? It’s just a straightforward murder enquiry, that’s all.’

  ‘Only the situation’s changed these past few months.’ He lowered his voice again, so I had to lean right forward just to hear him. ‘I told you. About the emperor. You can’t take anything for granted now, and all the bets are off. Messing around with politics, shoving your nose in and asking too many questions, it’s just not safe any more. You get me?’

  I grinned. ‘Has it ever been?’

  He didn’t grin back. ‘A hell of a lot safer than it is at present, boy, I’ll tell you that,’ he said. ‘You can get hurt, seriously hurt, maybe even fatally if you really step out of line. You remember the Sejanus years, don’t you? Well, read my lips, because I know what I’m talking about: this is fucking worse.’

  I could feel the icy knot forming in my gut, but I forced myself to hold the grin. ‘Come on, pal!’ I said, topping up our cups. ‘That’s enough! Lighten up and forget it! Tell me all about Furia Gemella’s temporary successors.’

  We shot the breeze for another half hour or so and finished the wine and most of the nibbles, by which time Secundus had to get back to running the empire.

  Yeah, well, I thought, as I chewed on the last olive, since I was in this part of town anyway I might as well go the whole hog, get it over with and pay that call on Caelius Crispus at the foreign judges’ office. See what dirty linen my four possibles were hiding under the bed. If any.

  I hadn’t liked the sound of Secundus’s warning about the dangers of furkling around in the grey areas of current politics, mind. I hadn’t liked it at all. Unfortunately, and pace what I’d told him, I had a very strong suspicion that was the way this case was going.

  Things, to put it mildly, were not looking good.

  ‘Oh, shit,’ Crispus sighed as the public slave who’d taken me to his office opened the door and stood aside for me to pass. ‘What is it this time?’

  ‘Hi, Crispus,’ I said, as the slave closed the door behind me. ‘How’s the boy?’ Then I noticed the purple stripe on his squeaky-clean mantle. ‘You’re an equestrian?’

  ‘As of a few days ago, yes, as it happens. The emperor has graciously agreed to my elevation to that rank.’

  Gods! The whole fabric of society was beginning to unravel. If I needed any more proof that Gaius was completely out of his tree, then this was it. Yet another rung of the ladder – and not an inconsiderable one – achieved in the slimy bastard’s climb towards social respectability and, indeed, eminence. Or maybe another few inches on the greasy pole would be putting it better.

  ‘Congratulations,’ I said.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said. He picked up a stylus from the desk. ‘Now, I’m extremely busy, Corvinus. Please state your business in as few words as possible so I can tell you to fuck off out of my life.’

  I went over to the desk, pulled up a stool, and sat down.

  ‘Come on, sunshine!’ I said. ‘Is that any way to treat an old friend and neighbour?’

  ‘Neighbour?’

  ‘More or less. Of the family, anyway. How’re you enjoying your new property?’ The year before, Crispus had bought a villa in the Alban Hills not far from Castrimoenium, where our adopted daughter Marilla and her husband Clarus lived. ‘You been down there recently?’

  ‘Not recently, no. Pressure of work, you understand.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I am, however, giving a select house party at the Winter Festival. My superior in the office and his lady wife have kindly indicated their willingness to be the guests of honour, and I have also prevailed upon several professional acquaintances within the senate to attend. It should be quite a lavish affair.’ Absently, his fingers brushed the stripe on his mantle, and he beamed. ‘Somewhat of a personal triumph, in fact.’

  ‘Hey, you know, pal’ – I crossed my legs – ‘that is really a coincidence, because we’ll be in Castrimoenium for the festival again this year ourselves. Perilla and me, I mean.’

  The beam disappeared. ‘No!’

  ‘But yes! Long-standing invite. Our daughter and her husband have a baby due around that time, and naturally Perilla wants to be on the spot when it’s born. Me too. First grandchild and all, big occasion.’ All, by the way, perfectly true: according to Clarus – and as a doctor he should know – the kid was due on the first day of the festival itself, and we’d arranged to be there a few days in advance and stay for the duration. ‘Maybe we could drop in on you and your friends. Just to say hello and wish them Happy Festival.’

  Crispus was definitely pale now, and licking his lips nervously. ‘Look, Corvinus,’ he said. ‘We had an agreement, right? When we talked last December, you promised that you and that wife of yours wouldn’t come anywhere near me. Particularly when I had company.’

  ‘Well, that was last December, wasn’t it? Eleven months ago.’ I gave him my best smile. ‘It wouldn’t be polite to ignore you altogether, would it, pal? And I’m sure your guests wouldn’t mind, because after all you and me go way back. They might even be interested to hear a few personal anecdotes in that regard. I’d keep them clean, of course.’ I paused. ‘Reasonably clean, anyway. As clean as possible, certainly. Where and when I could.’

  He was staring at me in horror.

  ‘Corvinus, you bastard! You complete and utter bastard!’

  ‘Well, we’ll see,’ I said. ‘What with everything else going on, we may not be able to spare the time. In any case, that’s all by the way. I was wondering if you could help me with some information here.’

  Pause. Long pause. Eventually, he said suspiciously: ‘What kind of information?’

  I uncrossed my legs and gave him another sunny smile. ‘Nothing complicated,’ I said. ‘Just the kind of thing that you do so well, and I really would be most awfully grateful.’ Smarm, smarm. ‘Simple background stuff, on four members of the senate.’ I gave him the names.

  ‘This is black
mail.’

  ‘Sure it is. Of the blackest kind. No arguments there.’

  ‘You promise you’ll come nowhere near my house party?’

  ‘Absolutely. See it wet, see it dry.’

  ‘And you’ll stay well clear of me in future?’

  ‘Come on, pal, be fair, I’m not promising that! One sale for one payment. Call it insurance, if you like. Besides, admit it, you’d miss the little frisson you get sharing some of the dirty little secrets you’ve come across, wouldn’t you? You don’t get much chance any more now you’ve become respectable.’

  He didn’t actually smile, but his lips twitched a fraction. Yeah, well, it had to be tough for someone like Crispus to play the establishment game, life decision or not. Sure, he always complained like hell about being held over a barrel, but I had more than a sneaking suspicion that it was largely for appearances’ sake: the truth was he was a born gossip-monger, and the dirtier the linen he could pull out of the basket for display, the better he liked it. His sharp civil servant’s mantle with – now – its purple stripe were just the surface covering for the metaphorical ragged underpants beneath.

  ‘All right, Corvinus,’ he sighed. ‘Where would you like me to start?’

  ‘With Longinus. Why was he recalled, do you know?’

  ‘Because the emperor’s tame fortune teller told him he should be careful of a man called Cassius.’

  I blinked. ‘What? You mean that’s all? Longinus was hauled all the way back to Rome just on the word of a fucking fortune teller?’

  ‘So I’m told.’

  ‘No proof of any sort of guilt or malfeasance whatsoever? Zero? Zilch?’

  ‘Not that I’m aware of.’ He shrugged. ‘You asked, Corvinus. That’s your answer. At least, it’s the only one I can provide.’

  Jupiter! Gaius had to be out of his tree right enough. Still, it fitted in with what Secundus had told me: we weren’t talking rational here any longer. Which was seriously worrying on all counts.

  ‘He, uh, wouldn’t’ve been involved in an affair with a Cornelia Sullana at one time, would he?’ I said. ‘Longinus, I mean?’